Economía política de los desastres naturales: prevención y capacitación

Abstract

Insufficient knowledge about the so called natural disasters has generally meant pasivity, fatalismo and inaction. This paper suggests an anthropic approach for the analysis and elaboration of policy proposals of issues related to natural disasters where the inclusion of a political economy viewpoint could aid preventive planning and a proper articulation between nature and society. The approach focus is the distribution of environmental costs and benefits within specific processes of economic development as a means of explaining the occurrence of natural disasters. Education and training constitute the main mechanisms to incorporate the proposed approach to planning. Training programmes at a territorial unit level become the main action instrument is natural disaster issues.